Tampa may become the latest Florida city to de-criminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s proposal calls for police to hand out civil citations, or tickets, to people caught with 20 grams or less of pot.
Those tickets would run $75 for a first offense, and graduate from there to a fourth offense.
After that, any pot possession becomes an arrestable offense again.
Buckhorn says he wants to avoid giving young people a criminal record that will follow them for life.
And he says ticketing for marijuana possession would free up police to investigate more serious crimes.
